Anyone like to forage?

[2big4mysize]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

they aren't wild but you can eat day lilie flower stuff squash blossums eat nasturnium blooms and eldeber fritters are good too.

Megs you missed a vital point of that saying. they are only taste good before they hit the ground in the part of a second it takes to fall. your park lets you havest?? ours lets you take only pickures and memories.they even outlawed the spring ramp harvesting a few yrs back.

[not2late]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Ummm...it's in a very secluded part of the park...alittle off the main trail and on an older, disused trail. If you aren't paying attention to the trail you'll miss the turn off.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I've never even heard of mayapples. I don't see why they would care if you picked up fallen fruit. The problem with the ramps is you have to pull the whole plant!

[boonie stomper]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

You've stumbled onto one of my all-time favorite pastimes! While "eating wild" technically refers to eating what can be obtained from your environment, I prefer to separate the ters from fishing (and shellfishing), hunting, and vegetable gardening - things that typically require a purchase of some sort (liscence or seed, etc) to do on a large scale. Foraging, then, would be what's left; rather like scavenging your menu from items not typically sold in stores.

I'm in Annapolis Maryland, and this spring I've discovered clamming. It's great exercise, too! Mom is goin' crazy about the giant dandelions I keep picking leaves from instead of digging them up. Last fall I discovered a woods with ample oyster mushrooms. After some research, I learned this is the only Eastern North American mushroom with no poisonous look-alikes. I picked until late November, and have found they're abundant again in mid-April! But I'd give my eye teeth to find wild morels!
Saw on in my sandbox as a child in Winchester, VA., and that's also an easy one to ID.
A trip along area jogging trails here will produce a regular cornucopea of goodies, ranging from dandelions, wild lettuce, mustard and onion greens to chard, berries and a host of nuts and seeds.

Later on, some folks around here go for the cicadas!

[boonie stomper]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

One more thing, if you're into herbology and survival foods there's an extensive number of "weeds" and native plants & flowers that are edible. Some of my weekly weeding (again more exercise, too!) usually ends upin my salad. I may even try boiled young pokeweed shoots this spring.
Last year I tried wild bamboo shoots, can't get much out of them, though.

[boonie stomper]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

And yet another thing... in Annapolis you can, if you want to, easily find the nests of local waterfowl. Can anyone say,

"BALUT" ?? I knew you couldn't!!

Here's a great forage recipe: 1 cup (shelled) maple seeds. (The fatter the better). Simmer in frypan until water is nearly gone. Add bacon &/or sausage. Fry. mmmmm!

Did that quite recently. Was great, takes awhile to shell the seeds, though.

[JEC48]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Does anyone here remember making necklaces out of the white flowers that grow out of clover when they were children? I use to eat those, and if I remember correctly, were quite tasty.

[bjs1976]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

getting my FIDDLE HEADS tomorrow-- cant wait, and soon enough dandilion greens YUM.... This is the perfect time of year for low carbing..

Ofcourse wild berries too. blackberries blueberries strawberries raspberries...

[Heidi3]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

I have had terrible luck with dandilions I love bitter greens but the ones I have tried are way tooo bitter and I am not sure what the problem is or if the varieties I have sampled where good ones?

summer here we have so many blackberries they are considered "invasive" up in the mountains late summer are the best huckleberries on the earth I believe ...early summer the lowland red huckleberries are good as well ..there is so much to eat here I would be writing chapters on forraging ...

Megs with mushrooms ...if you are interested see if they have a local mushroom club in your area ..we had one and it was fun you could go to meetings and just learn stuff even if you were not a member but members got to go on these great mushroom hunts with the older folks who knew and loved to show what to pick and not pick ...even if you never eat them going hunting for mushrooms is beyond fun!!!!

[bjs1976]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Heidi,

Dandilion greens are by far a bitter green. A trick my grandma tought me, and she is a die hard dandilion fan, they need to be young, immaturre. Do not pick them after thye flower, way to bitter. Perhaps they just taste better here in Maine, I am not sure. Spring is the only time they are available, and early, way berfore those pesky yellow flowers start to blossm. My favorite green although from my garden and farmers stands is beet greens. NO foraging there, but truly delish. With jsut tiny baby beets on the end...

Hmm, wonder the carb count for them.

Do you dig your own dandilion greens or purchase them?

[boonie stomper]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Dandelion greens tend to become more bitter as the temperature rises. (I count them as a type of lettuce). The sweetest leaves are the earliest ones; just like lettuce; when the weather gets hot they bolt and the sap gets more bitter. Try picking them from cooler, shadier areas if it's been hot. The flowers aren't so much a determining factor, and they're good to eat, too.
You can add sweeter wild greens, also, to balance your salad.
Anice dressing helps too: try adding poppy seeds, plantain and violet leaves, and red clover blossoms. Finely cut spring onion is also good, and there are some peppery weeds I don't know the name of in this area that are briefly like hot horseradish! As for other leaves, anything that grows leaves resembling collards I'll go for; chard, mustard, and horseradish to name a few.

Bjs1976 - There's fiddleheads now here, but how do you fix them and are they ok for induction?

JEC48 - sure the white clover is good, but the much biiger red ones are better!

[bjs1976]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

fiddleheads here too, I just eat mine with butter and a shot of vinegar..

The beet green are what I am concerned about carb count for... as there is a small amount of beet in the end of the green when I like to cook mine. By the time i get my garden greens I will no longer be on induction, so I am sure no mattter what the carb count is, I will be able to enjoy, atleast a FEW!!!!

[boonie stomper]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

bjs - about the fiddleheads, somewhere I read about some being toxic; especially if not cooked. What kind do you eat raw?

[bjs1976]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

NONE!!!!! I do not eat my fiddleheads raw... I usually boil them. Sometimes blanch then and saute in olive oil in garlic.

Always COOKED!!

[boonie stomper]

Re: Anyone like to forage?

Thanks! I misread you

fiddleheads here too, I just eat mine with butter and a shot of vinegar..

I actually picked a bunch last weekend, but had chickened out & tossed them.